1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data processing environments and, more particularly, to a system providing methodology for consolidation of financial information.
2. Description of the Background Art
Historically, banking operations have involved a number of time consuming and tedious tasks for both individuals and businesses requiring banking services. Examples of time consuming consumer banking processes include visiting a branch or bank center, paying bills by paper check (and mailing them), and balancing checkbooks. Businesses also have had similar issues, but in the case of business banking an even larger number and types of banking transactions (particularly, a larger number of transactions) are typically involved.
In addition, banking operations have also historically involved dealing with large quantities of information, much of which was historically maintained and exchanged in paper format. More recently, the exchange of financial information between banking and financial organizations has been automated. Banks having been exchanging information electronically for a number of years and today most of the information exchanges between banks is handled electronically.
While banks have exchanged information electronically for a number of years, for much of this period most consumers and businesses continued to conduct banking transactions in the traditional, paper-oriented fashion. However, with the growth of the Internet, online banking has automated a number of these processes for businesses and consumers. Online banking can save time by enabling bank customers to access their accounts and perform various banking transactions when (and where) it is convenient. As a result, online banking has been growing in popularity in recent years.
Another recent trend is that businesses and other organizations are facing an increasing need to cut costs and deliver services with fewer resources while, at the same time, finding new sources of revenue. To meet this challenge, corporate treasurers and other financial professionals are increasingly seeking banking solutions that allow them to efficiently manage their entire organization's cash position in an easy-to-use format. In addition, by moving from paper-based processing to electronic processing, corporations are able to eliminate inefficient and error prone processes.
Although online banking provides increased efficiency and ease-of-use, problems remain with the delivery of online banking services. One problem to be addressed by banks in providing consumers and businesses with online access to banking information is that this information is typically maintained in a number of different formats and at a number of different locations. In addition, banks and financial institutions also usually have a number of different sources of financial information (e.g., BAI (Bank Administration Institute), SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), back-end, and/or proprietary files). For example, a given bank may typically exchange files containing banking information with other banks (including federal banks) on a regular basis (e.g., several times per day). The bank may, for instance, receive files in a BAI (Bank Administration Institute) file format from other banks four times per day. In addition to the information received in files from other banks, the bank also typically has other “live” (user-accessible) information that is available in the bank's bank-end systems. This “live” information is often maintained in proprietary formats in the bank's internal systems.
Bank customers want to receive a complete, consolidated report of activity relating to a particular account in a convenient, easy to use format. However, the number of sources of banking information and the different formats in which such information is maintained makes it difficult for the bank to consolidate and report accurate and complete information to its customers. Also, banking information received from external sources may also duplicate entries that have already been made in internal systems, so the solution needs to be able to reconcile the information received from different sources.
Another issue to be addressed is that the quantity of information relating to particular accounts may be quite large, particularly in the case of accounts maintained by a large corporation. This volume of information can make it difficult for the bank to consolidate and report account information to the customer in a manner in which the customer can understand. On a given day, a corporate customer may have hundreds or even thousands of transactions relating to particular accounts. A member of a corporation's financial staff may have difficulty understanding and using transaction information relating to these accounts unless he or she can easily navigate through this information (e.g., paging through the information using a browser interface or the like).
What is needed is a solution which consolidates financial information from a number of different sources, enabling accurate and complete information to be presented in a format that is easy to navigate and use. Ideally, the solution should provide a means for storing historical account information which enables accurate and complete information to be retrieved efficiently. The solution should also facilitate the viewing and navigation of large quantities of data, such as large collections of financial transactions. The present invention provides a solution for these and other needs.